大象传媒

I was 9 years old when the war started in 1939. My father was a famer and we lived about six miles from Darlington City in a village called Leamside. When Sunderland was bombed, although we were reasonably safe, we heard and saw the bombs dropping - it was very frightening. We had a large undertairs cupboard which we used a a shelter when the bombs were dropping.

My vivid memory is of our dog Trixie she insisted on sitting between my father's feet during an air raid. When we heard the sound of a plane, Trixie would prick up her ears and listen. Sometimes she just lay down again and my father would say "It's alright its one of ours", Otherwise she straight away wanted to be in the cupboard with us.

We never knew how she could tell the difference between a friendly and an enemy aircraft.

I also remeber setting off for school by moonlight in the mornings as British Summer time was then 2 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. So that farmers had light nights to gather the crops.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.